


The Best Gift

by sm_jl



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, F/M, Post-War, Romione Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:07:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28285974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sm_jl/pseuds/sm_jl
Summary: Ron and Hermione celebrate their first Christmas together with a special gift.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Comments: 6
Kudos: 40
Collections: 2020 HPRomione Discord Secret Santa Exchange





	The Best Gift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [honouraryweasley12](https://archiveofourown.org/users/honouraryweasley12/gifts).



Hermione bounded off the Hogwarts Express and straight into Ron’s waiting arms, kissing him deeply before either of them got a single word out. “Oi, could you two get a room?” Ginny teased as she followed a few steps behind. “Where’s Harry?”

Ron’s lips left Hermione’s to answer, but their arms stayed firmly around each other. Two months was much too long to go without her; he was going to have to make sure to arrange his schedule to allow for more Hogsmeade weekends in Hermione’s last term. “Still at the Ministry. Finishing up a report.”

“Left him with all the paperwork, did you?” Hermione asked with a sly smile.

“Might’ve done,” Ron grinned back.

Ginny groaned and hauled her trunk up to start walking down the platform. “You’re such a prat, Ron.”

Ron rolled his eyes and took Hermione’s hand in one of his, her trunk in the other. “Oh, relax, he’ll meet us at the Burrow. He’s probably already there.” Ginny made a rude gesture over her shoulder as she picked up her pace. “You’re sure your parents are alright with you spending Christmas with us?” he asked Hermione.

“Yes, they said that they’re quite content to avoid a London winter for the holiday this year. Apparently my dad has already got himself some reindeer patterned swim trunks for the occasion, if you can imagine.” Ahead of them, Ginny ducked into the phone booth that served as the station’s apparition point, and Ron and Hermione waited a moment before following. “Besides, it’s nothing short of tragic that I’ve never had a proper Burrow Christmas, between one shenanigan or another over the past seven years.”

“You’re going to love it,” Ron promised. “And everyone’ll be here; even Charlie’s coming in.”

“Doesn’t he usually?”

Ron squeezed Hermione’s hand tightly and apparated them to the outer edge of the Burrow’s wards. Ginny had already plowed ahead of them, and their mum’s squeals of greeting drifted out from the kitchen into the yard. “It’s hit or miss with him. But this year...I guess we really all needed to be together, y’know?” Hermione nodded knowingly as they walked toward the house through the lightly falling snow.

After dinner, Harry and Ron set up the chess set by the fire while Ginny and Hermione sat close by their sides. Harry was resetting the pieces after his second defeat when Ron squeezed Hermione’s leg and asked, “So when d’you want your gift?”

Hermione looked up at him perplexedly. “You’re not giving it to me Christmas morning?”

“Well, then it’d be in front of the whole family, and I wanted to give it to you in private.”

“Ew,” Harry and Ginny chorused, causing Ron to roll his eyes.

“It’s not _that_ kind of present,” he retorted.

“It’s not?” The jovial disappointment in Hermione’s voice morphed their best friends’ expressions from mild disgust to twin looks of pure revulsion.

“Well, we could...I mean…” Ron felt his ears turning pink as Ginny mimed gagging across from him. “No, it’s not that kind of present.”

“Hmm. Well, whenever you think is best then, I suppose.”

Ron had spent a lot of time this year picking out Hermione’s gift. It was their first Christmas as a couple, so of course he wanted to get her something special, but they had also had some pretty rubbish Christmases in the past, the two of them, so he felt like he had some making up to do. He had the perfect present, he was sure, so now he just had to think of the perfect way to give it to her.

Of course, he should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.

He wasn’t entirely sure he wasn’t dreaming when Hermione crept into his room, later that very night. “What’re you doing up here?” Ron asked as she shut the door behind herself and tiptoed to his bed.

“I’ve decided you can’t just tease me with such an intriguing gift and then not let me have it,” Hermione whispered back. She sat down gingerly beside him and nodded over to the camp bed. “Harry asleep?”

“No,” Harry replied sleepily, though his back was to them.

“Well, could you just bugger off for a bit, Harry?”

Harry half rolled over and gave Hermione a bleary-eyed glare over his shoulder. “What for?” he asked indignantly. “I thought it wasn’t _that_ sort of present.”

“Ron said _his_ wasn’t, I didn’t say anything about mine.”

“Ugh!” Harry threw back the covers and reached for his glasses. “Enough said.” Hermione grinned at Ron while Harry made for the door, adding as he left, “Don’t forget a silencing charm.”

“So, you’ve gotten me something naughty, have you?” Ron asked, reaching a hand out to his girlfriend.

“No, I just said that to get rid of Harry,” Hermione replied as she scooted closer to him. “Your gift is down in my trunk.”

Ron sat up and fixed Hermione with a half-hearted glare. “Wait a minute, so I’ve got to give you your present now but I don’t get mine, _and_ we’re not having sex?”

“Honestly, Ron, of course we are, but the idea that I would need to _gift_ you with acts of sexual intimacy is preposterous and unnecessary seeing as we have an equitable and mutually fulfilling physical relationship.”

She made his head spin sometimes, she really did. Ron leaned over and kissed her. “You’re bloody mental, y’know?”

“I know. I’m not sure if you love me in spite of it or because of it,” she teased.

“Bit of both,” Ron grinned back. “So I’ve got to give you your present before the curiosity overwhelms you, is that it?”

Hermione shrugged. “More or less.”

Ron gave her another quick kiss on the cheek as he climbed out of bed. “It’s not really that interesting,” he told her as he rummaged in his dresser. “I just wanted to be able to give it to you without everyone taking the mickey over what a sentimental sod I am.”

“Oh, now I’m even more intrigued. There’s nothing sentimental about the training planner I got you.” Ron glanced over his shoulder at her. “Kidding.”

Ron rolled his eyes and pulled the tiny package out of the middle drawer. “Alright, here you go.” He handed it to her and sat down beside her as her delicate fingers slid under the seam of the wrapping. She was always a careful unwrapper of gifts; Ron by contrast was a tornado of colorful paper on Christmas morning.

Hermione tossed the wrapping aside and gently lifted the lid, revealing the silver charm bracelet inside with a small gasp. “Oh, Ron,” she breathed, “it’s beautiful.”

“Look at the charms,” he encouraged, and she tenderly lifted the bracelet, which had seven tiny charms attached in a neat row on the left side.

“A pumpkin...the cat, must be Crookshanks…is that an otter? And this one...” She was fingering the brilliant aquamarine gemstone on the end, and when she looked over at him, her eyes were glossy, making Ron glad they had done this alone. “The ball of light?” she whispered. Ron nodded. “It’s...it’s _us_. On a bracelet.” She held it out to him. “Help me put it on?”

He took it from her and fastened the clasp around her wrist, then held her hand in both of his. “There’s actually, um...a bit more to it.”

“What do you mean? Is there a spell or something on it?”

“No, actually, I got it from a muggle shop. Paid with real pounds and everything.” Ron glanced up at Hermione with a smile, then cleared his throat, remembering what he needed to tell her about her gift. “Well, you see how it’s only got a few things on it?” Hermione nodded. “I wanted to leave space. You know, to fill in...over the years.” He met her gaze, suddenly nervous.

After they had finally gotten together in the spring, their relationship had progressed quickly in a lot of ways. They had said “I love you” the day the war had ended, at Hogwarts, and their hands had started roaming that same night, in Gryffindor Tower, and it had only taken them a couple of weeks to work their way up to sleeping together...but then reality had set in a bit, and between the funerals, and rebuilding Hogwarts, and finding Hermione’s parents, and a million other little things, they had been very much rooted in the present. It wasn’t that Ron didn’t think about the future—he thought about it quite a lot, actually—but they definitely hadn’t talked about it. And he wanted to change that, wanted Hermione to know that she was it for him, everything he ever wanted.

Hermione threw her arms around him suddenly, and he leaned back, pulling them both down to his mattress. “That’s the best gift you could ever give me,” she mumbled into his neck. “A future.”

“Well, I couldn’t fit our entire future into a box, but this was the next best thing.”

She pulled back slightly to look at him. “Do you have to have a witty retort for _everything_ I say?” she asked, half glaring at him and half smirking.

“Yeah, ‘course. Do you love me in spite of that or because of it?” Ron teased.

“A bit of both,” she sighed contentedly, laying down and snuggling back into his side. “Definitely a bit of both.”


End file.
